Chapter 6 Become a Gigolo (1)
Johnny felt that his day had passed very strangely. He had been complained out of the blue, and he had saved someone all of a sudden. He had been fired too, not knowing the reason, and in the end he gotten himself a high salary job for strange reasons.
With a cigarette dangling from his mouth, Johnny made his way into a tube-shaped apartment. This was a building that catered to the family members of factory workers which looked like it had been here since the eighties. It was built with red bricks and spanned four floors, with corridors outside each unit. There were seven or eight more buildings that resembled this one. Over time, this building was now a gathering space of poverty-stricken city dwellers. Those who lived here were people who came from other places to work here. They didn't command a high salary, so they couldn't afford to buy proper houses nor renting a condo. They could only dwell in this place.
Johnny stopped in front of one of the doors and opened it. He then walked in.
Inside the unit, there was a man and a woman getting tangled up on the sofa, and upon seeing Johnny's intrusion, both of them shot up in shock. The man hastily clambered up from the sofa and swore at Johnny, "You motherfucker, why didn't you knock on the door?"
"Fuck you, are you blaming me now? Can the two of you be decent human beings? What time is it now? It's only eight o'clock, and nobody starts doing that so early into the night. One more thing, this sofa here is my bed, can you both go into your room if you want to fuck? It's not like you don't have a bed in there. This sofa is only this big. Do you think you will be comfortable doing it on this?" Johnny walked further into the unit with an unconcerned look on his face. He continued to babble as he took a sip of water he had just got from a water dispenser.
"Johnny, seriously? What do you mean that the sofa is yours? This unit has been rented by us, you remember? You just came barging in with your backpack and you didn't even pay a penny for the rental. And I still need to make sure you have a roof above your head and food on the table." The woman's face became flushed as she reprimanded Johnny vehemently. From the looks of her face, she was really infuriated.
"Hey, hey, hey. Are you guys that ungrateful? Brown, you should speak up now. Didn't you use my money when you first went dating with Lucia? And some more, when you were in the third year of university, Lucia got pregnant, and in order to make sure you guys have enough money to pay for the operation, I had been eating cup noodles for two whole months. Do you guys still have any conscience?" Johnny walked towards the sofa and wore his slippers. As he rambled on, he kicked out at Brown's butts and shouted, "Go over there." Then, he sat his ass down on the sofa.
"Johnny, Johnny, we have no intentions of blasting out of the place. You can see very clearly what kind of relationship we share here, and your existence here really makes things uncomfortable for us. Think about it, we still have our needs, right? When you work during day time, we are working too, so naturally when we came back, we would want to go at it. Despite that, you are occupying the whole space here. How can we live our life properly with you acting like that?" Brown was complaining towards Johnny with a miserable expression.
"You sound like you guys didn't have sex for a long time, damn you! You do it seven days a week from Monday to Friday for every night. As for Saturday and Sunday, I don't know whether you are here or not during day time, but I am sure that you guys will do it twice on Saturday night. The only night I have my ears free of noise is on Sunday. Young people, you don't need to squeeze all ounces of your energy like that. With the frequency you do it and considering Brown's frail body, I would say you only have five years to enjoy. You should cut down on it!" Johnny patted Brown's shoulders while he gave a sound advice to him.
"What the hell? How could you remember all of these?" Brown widened his eyes while Lucia blushed as she kicked repeatedly at Johnny. She was obviously embarrassed.
"Can you blame me on that? There is only a wall separating us, and to make things worse it is not soundproof. Whenever Lucia screamed out, it is very hard for me not to take notice."
"Wow, you really have no sense of shame!" Lucia grew even more embarrassed as Johnny continued to describe their sex life, and she was hammering at him while she desperately tried to stop him. "That's enough, Johnny. I'm begging you to move. I will be traumatised soon if you continue to stay here. Please. Don't you have a job now? I know you are in a difficult situation, but I don't think you are lacking this few hundred bucks to rent a place, right? What about this. I rent one unit for you in the opposite block? I saw someone moving out of that unit just today, and the landlord is looking for new tenants. From now on, you will be staying there, but you can still come here to eat with us, alright? I will promise you good food every day." Brown was completely speechless towards Johnny now.
"My dear brother, it's not like I am deliberately messing with you. I don't really have a choice. You know my situation here, let alone a few hundred bucks, I even need to save up one penny if I have it. To tell you the truth, I am indeed planning to move out and find a cheaper place, but let me break it to you a bad news, I am jobless again now. I don't think I can move out for the time being. You guys need to endure a little longer, just pretend that I'm not here. You can do whatever you want." Johnny took out a cigarette from his pocket and hurled it at Brown.
"What? You're jobless again? Are you kidding me?"
"I was fired because I bumped into a maniac. I was shunned out of the company just like that..." Johnny leaned against a sofa and used a remote control to switch the channel on the television. He then started to explain everything that happened today.
Among the two people living here, the guy was named Brown Tee, which sounded like a certain brand of tea leaves. This was purely a coincidence. According to him, his name came into being because his father's family name was Brown and her mother's was Tee. His father just felt that Brown Tee was a very memorable name. The woman's name was Lucia Levy, and the three of them were in the same university. Brown and Johnny were close like brothers who lived in the same dormitory. Lucia started to have a relationship with Brown since the beginning of their university years, which had formed a strong bond between the three of them.
After graduation, Johnny returned to hometown, and both Brown and Lucia had started their career in Pearl City. Now, Brown was working in a sales company while Lucia was a clerk in an international company. They didn't have a very high salary, and their salaries only added up to around ten thousand per month. In fact, they were just joking when they claimed they wanted Johnny to go away. When Johnny first arrived here, he only brought with him a small luggage bag. It was Brown and Lucia who personally welcomed him from the train station to this place. After settling in, Johnny had been staying here ever since, and as Lucia described, they both knew what kind of situation Johnny was in. Therefore, in his life here, they didn't let Johnny spend anything on food and rental, and besides, every night he was able to enjoy dinner personally cooked by Lucia. They never asked Johnny to do anything here. As friends, there was nothing more they could do better.
"Ten thousand? She only needs you to work for a few hours every week?" Brown exclaimed with his eyes wide open after listening to Johnny's story.
"That's right, that's what she told me."
"Wasn't she trying to scam you? There's no free lunch in this world?" Lucia felt unbelievable.
"She's right. Besides, although you have a pretty face that could barely live up to the standard of a gigolo, with your weak stamina, you can't possibly be a real one, can you? Why did that wealthy woman set her eyes on you? We have been brothers for so many years, but I didn't know you have the potential to be a gigolo." Brown continued to ramble on as he studied Johnny.
"Get lost. What I am telling you now is the truth. Whether it's actually true or not, I have to see it myself tomorrow. I can't be unemployed now. If worst comes to worst, I would just have to look for a new job tomorrow!" Johnny let out a yawn on the sofa as he explained. He had been too tired today.
"That's enough, bro. Don't be too stuck up on this since you can't clear your debt in one go anyway. Take it easy. You can't push yourself to the brink anyway. Right, let's go to sleep now. You go to sleep too!" Brown noticed that Johnny was looking exhausted, and he dragged Lucia back to their room. That room belonged to Lucia and him, while the sofa they were sitting on just now was actually Johnny's bed.